MOSCOW , Russia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Two sentences inscribed above the refurbished entrance hall of Moscow 's Kurskaya metro station are causing great agitation for survivors of Russian labor camps.Yuri Fidelgoldsh , who had five ribs removed after imprisonment six decades ago , is one of the offended survivors .

This slogan at a Moscow metro station has stirred controversy : `` Stalin reared us on loyalty to the people . ''

`` Stalin reared us on loyalty to the people , '' says the inscription above the pristine marble floors of the metro station . `` He inspired us to labor and to heroism . ''

Fidelgoldsh , now 82 , does n't use the metro station much , but he has been there to see the restoration . When he invokes the name `` Stalin , '' he gets angry . `` For people who were imprisoned , punished and whose parents were killed , this is still in their hearts , '' Fidelgoldsh says .

Kremlin critics are outraged by the restored motto at the station . They say it 's the latest attempt by the government to rehabilitate the image of Joseph Stalin , the late Soviet leader largely responsible for the division of Europe , the deaths of nearly 20 million people and the creator of the Eastern Bloc .

`` I have no positive emotions towards Stalin , '' Fidelgoldsh adds . `` He 's a college dropout who went into politics and became a leader of a party which fit his needs . He did n't exactly impress me with his ` great ' mind . '' Watch report on the rehabilitation of Stalin 's image ''

The phrase at the metro station came from the original Soviet national anthem , written in 1944 by Sergey Mikhalkov . During the de-Stalinization process that began under Nikita Khrushchev after Stalin 's death in 1953 , statues and other vestiges of his immense cult of personality were removed . In 1977 , Mikhalkov rewrote the anthem to delete references to Stalin , and the metro station removed the original inscription of his words .

The entrance hall to the station underwent extensive renovation over the past year , complete with new columns and polished marble floors . It 's located on the main metro line around the city 's center , through which tens of thousands of commuters pass every day .

On a recent day , a woman named Nadia said she had no problem with the slogan honoring Stalin . She grew up after the fall of the Soviet Union and during the prosperous Putin years . `` I think we should n't be ashamed because this is a part of our history . We have to somehow accept the history , '' said Nadia , who did n't want to give her last name .

The Kremlin declined comment for this story . Pavel Suharnikov , the press director for Moscow Metro , said , `` We do not wish to discuss this matter anymore , but I will say that I do n't see any political motivation behind the restoration of Kurskaya . ''

Travelers at the metro station first saw the words hailing Stalin at the start of 1950 , when the station opened as one of the grand post-World War II constructions . It was contracted by Stalin himself .

`` This metro station was built by prisoners of gulags who were in there for no reason , just because . They were the ones building this station . I think all of this is simply wrong , '' says Valeri M. Shevchenko , a musician , whose father suffered at the hands of Stalin 's regime .

`` They came in the morning , Stalin 's police , took everyone outside and shot my grandfather in front of his family . My grandmother and her eight children , including my father who was 8 at the time , were sent to work camps . Only three children survived . ''

As Shevchenko looks around the metro station today , he shakes his head .

Irina Sherbakova , Moscow director of the Russian-based International Memorial Society , says this new `` re-Stalinization '' is a step back for democracy in Russia . `` It 's clear that our nation has declined to accept democracy and individual freedoms , as a principle . ''

The Memorial Society is a community of dozens of human rights organizations in different regions of Russia , Ukraine , Kazakhstan , Latvia and Georgia that formed in 1990 . It is responsible for preservation of the societal memory of the severe political persecution of the Soviet Union .

The return of the anthem line at Kurskaya may prove to be culturally dividing . According to the Memorial Society , more than 40 percent of citizens favor Stalin 's rehabilitation . `` That means people do n't care about what was happening to their ancestors . There are no plaques on our buildings and in our schools . It 's not at all about restoration and preserving the memory , '' says Sherbakova .

Fidelgoldsh , the gulag survivor , was arrested by Stalin 's militia on the streets of Moscow in 1948 . A friend of his had admitted under questioning -- with a promise to be released -- that they had privately criticized Stalin 's regime . The two , along with another friend , were charged with anti-Soviet agitations and forming an anti-Soviet group .

They were sent to a labor camp near Magadan , in eastern Russia . Fidelgoldsh was imprisoned for eight years . The friend who turned him in spent the next 30 years in various camps and prisons , where he eventually died .

Fidelgoldsh shows a picture of himself at the time of his illness , which was taken by camp authorities and sent to his mother to show that her son was alive and well . He looks weak and pale .

`` I nearly starved a few times . They gave me a small loaf of bread daily , but I could n't survive on that , and quickly became too thin and weak to perform , '' Fidelgoldsh says . `` Eventually , I became sick with tuberculoses and spat blood . ''

Sherbakova , the Kremlin critic , says it 's a slippery slope when a nation like Russia appears to be rewriting history .

`` No matter what our politicians may say and do , unless they are willing to accept the past for what it was and treat it properly , the current generations , who are growing up with World War II as a thing of the past , are under threat of repeating the same tragic mistakes , '' Sherbakova says .

Joseph Stalin became the general secretary of the Communist Party in 1922 . When Vladimir Lenin died in 1924 , Stalin essentially installed himself as the Soviet heir .

Stalin purged the party of `` enemies '' in what was known as the Great Terror of the 1930s . Tens of thousands of people were executed and millions were forced into the gulag labor system .

CNN 's Wayne Drash contributed to this report .

@highlight

Newly restored slogan at Moscow metro station hails Stalin , draws criticism

@highlight

Gulag survivor : `` For people ... whose parents were killed , this is still in their hearts ''

@highlight

Group says 40 percent of Russians are in favor of rehabilitation of Stalin 's image

@highlight

`` That means people do n't care about what was happening to their ancestors ''